Strike plate locator tool



' Oct. 15, 1957 E. 1.. SCHLAGE 2,809,440

STRIKE PLATE LOCATOR TdOL Filed Jan. 23, 1956 INVENTOR. ERNEST L SCHLAGE 459 w w 4 W tum STRIKE PLATE LOCATSR TOOL Ernest L. Schlage, Eurlingame, Calif assignor to Schlage Lock Company, a corporation Application January 23, 1956, Serial No. 550,653

2 Claims. (Ci. 33-197) This invention relates to a tool or marker whereby the position of the strike plate on a door frame with relation to the latch bolt in a door may be quickly and accurately located and marked.

in certain types of door locks two holes are bored or drilled in the door, one hole through the edge of the door to receive the latch bolt and the other through the face of the door to receive the latch bolt actuating mechanism. A strike plate must also be applied to the frame or jamb of the door and the mortise therefore must be accurately cut and positioned so that the latch bolt may freely enter when the strike plate is finally fitted in the mortise and secured.

in actual practice when a building under construction is ready for installation of the door locks, a carpenter usually goes from door to door and bores the holes and cuts the mortises required. When this work is completed the locks are installed and if the mortise for the strike plate is not accurately positioned considerable extra fitting and delay is encountered.

The object of the present invention is to provide a tool or marker whereby the carpenter who does the work of boring the holes and cutting the mortises may quickly and accurately locate and mark the position where the mortise of the strike plate is to be cut.

The invention is shown by way of illustration in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is the perspective view of one form of marker.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section showing the marker placed in the latch bolt receiving opening of a door and in position to make a mark on the door frame.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section showing another form of marker.

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section showing a modified form of the marker in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of a modified form of the marker, point and rod; and,

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section showing another modification.

Referring to the drawings and particularly Figs. 1 and 2, a door 3 and its frame or jamb 4 is diagrammatically indicated. With certain types of door locks two holes are bored or drilled in the door as indicated at 5 and 6; the hole 6 to receive the latch bolt unit of the lock and the hole 5 to receive the latch bolt actuating unit. After the holes 5 and 6 have been bored, it is necessary to accurately mark the face of the door frame so that this may be cut or mortised to receive the strike plate. T o accomplish this a plunger such as indicated at A is provided. The outer end is rounded as at 7, and to the rounded end is secured by means of a marker 8 an arcuate flat spring 9 which may be made from a clock spring strip or like material. The marker is cone-shaped and sharp at the point, so as to readily form an indentation like a center punch mark or a scratch line as will hereinafter appear.

After a carpenter has hung a door and bored the holes 5 and 6, he opens the door and inserts the marker as a aired States Patent whole in the opening 6 as shown in Fig. 2, then by closing the door the sharp end of the marker 8 will engage the face of the frame or jamb and form a scratch line, then by opening the door the marker may be removed. The inner end of the scratch line indicates the exact center position which the latch bolt will assume when mounted in the door, hence, all the carpenter has to do is to drill a shallow hole of substantially the same diameter as the latch bolt in the face of the frame at the end of the scratch line. The strike plate is now placed in a position on the frame where the opening in the strike plate will register with the hole, and when they register he marks the outline of the strike plate with a pencil, and finally cuts his mortise so that the strike plate may be dropped in, and there secured in the usual way by a pair of screws.

Doors are not always fitted as close as they might be to the frame or jamb when being hung, hence, there usually is a space of one-eighth of an inch or more as indicated at 10 in Fig. 2 between the door and the jamb. In view of this space and the fact that it varies, the use of spring 9 becomes important as it not only automatically flattens or expands to take care of such variations in space, but also urges the marker 8 outwardly against the face of the jamb with sufiicient force to insure a good visible scratch line.

In Figs. 3 and 4, a helical compression type of spring is employed as indicated at 12 to urge the marker outwardly. In that case a cup-shaped housing 14 of a diameter to snugly fit the latch bolt opening is required to receive and guide the plunger A. The inner end or" the housing is closed as at 15 while the outer and is flanged as at 16 to engage the edge face of the door and thereby limit inward movement of the housing in the latch bolt opening. Spring 12 is interposed between the bottom of the housing and the plunger, and a rod 17 is secured to the plunger and extends through and rearwardly of the bottom section of the housing. The rod is pointed at its outer end to form a marker and is provided with a notched portion 18 which acts as a latch and a pin 19 is carried by the rear end of the rod to limit forward motion of the plunger.

The form of marker shown in Fig. 3 may be used either to form a scratch line or to form an indentation like a punch mark or it may do both. If it is desired to form a punch mark in the face of the jamb, the rod 17 is grasped at its end and pulled rearwardly until the latch 18 engages or hooks on to the bottom section of the housing. This causes retraction of the plunger and compression of the spring 12. The marker as a whole is then placed in the latch bolt opening in the same manner as shown in Fig. 2 and when so positioned the inner end of rod 17 will extend into the opening 5. The carpenter then closes the door and holds it closed while releasing the rod by pushing it to one side just enough to release the latch. This releases the compression spring and shoots the plunger forward with sufficient speed and force to cause the marker to enter the wood and make a punch-like impression. if the carpenter desires in addition to the punch mark, a scratch line, he slowly opens the door and while the door is being opened the sharp point makes a scratch line; on the other hand, if he does not desire a scratch line, he merely reaches into the opening 5 and pulls the rod rearwardly until the latch catches, thus retracting the plunger to a position where no scratch will be made when the door is opened.

Some types of lumber used in the manufacture of door frames or jambs have a soft texture and have little if any tendency to splinter, again other types of lumber are harder and splinter or sliver readily. If the latter type of lumber is encountered, the marker shown in Fig. 4

is preferable. This marker is exactly the same in consanction and operation as that shown in Fig. 3 with one exception and that is, that the compression spring is made shorterand stouter. When the plunger assumes a position shown in full lines in Fig; 4 the compression spring 12 is fully extended, but by pulling rearwardly on the rod until the latch hooks on to the bottom section, the spring is compressed, and when released'the' plunger is shot forward with considerable force as shown by the dotted line position and a punch-like indentation is made in the face of the jamb, if the door is now opened the plunger is forced rearwardly as it is out of engagement with the compression spring, and will thus recede within the cup-shaped housing to the'position shown, thus when the dooris opened, no scratch will be made-and no splint or sliver can be torn from thewood;

The marker shown in Fig.6 diflfers from that shown in Fig. 3 to the extent that the rear end of the rod 17 is threaded and provided with a nut 21, also the housing 14 is longer so thatwhen inserted in the opening 6 of the door, nut 21 may be reached through the opening 5. This marker is especially intended for use when a scratch line is desired.v In operation the'marker is inserted in the opening 6 and pushed inwardly until flange 16 engages the edge face of the dooror the face 23 of the mortise, if this has been cut. The carpenter then swings the door toward closed position until the plunger or marker engages the outer edge of the jamb or door frame. He then reaches into the opening and rotates the nut 21in one direction or another to either extend or retract the plunger and marker, or in other words to so position the sharp point of the marker that a scratch line of proper depth will be, made when he pushes the door to full closed position. The adjustment provided by the threaded end of the rod and the nut does not only take care of any variation of spacing between the edge, face of the door and frame, but it also makes it possible to producea scratch line of any depth desired, also after the scratch line has been made, the carpenter may reach into the opening 5 grasp the nut and pull it together with the rod,'plunger and marker to a retracted position before opening the door, thus eliminating any danger of pulling a sliver when opening the door to remove the marker.

The rounded outer surface of the plunger shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 6 is important, as the rounded surface functions like acam to depress the plunger when contacting the jambduring closing of a door. The depression 25 in the outer end of the plunger is also important, as it not only forms a firm seat for the marker point, but the rim around such depression limits the distance the sharp point of the marker may enter the wood While making a scratch line, further, said rim prevents the point from digging in and going deeper and deeper, especially when opening the door after making a scratch line, such digging in being the main cause of splintering the edge of the door Such a stamping may be used in the structures shown in Figs. 3 and 4; the shank 7 taking the place of the rod A c 17, and the arrow-shaped head 8 functioning in place of the cone-shaped marker 8. The edges 8 of the arrowshaped head may be beveled and sharpened to a knife 7 edge, and as such will form a cut line rather than a scratch line.

Having thus described my invention what I desire to claim and secure by LettersPatent is: V

1. In a strike plate locator for marking on a door frame the continuation of the central axis of the latch bolt opening in the associated door in which the latch actuating unit hole in theface of the door communicates with said latch bolt opening; a pointed marker, means supporting said marker for translation along said 'axis with the pointed end of said marker directed toward said frame, spring means projecting said marker toward said frame, means connected to said marker forretracting the same against the urgency of said spring means and extending fromsaid marker into said latch actuating unit hole for grasping by the fingers through said hole, and stop means carried by said retracting means and limiting the projection of said marker from said free edge of saiddoor to a distance slightly greater than the normal distance between said free edge and said frame whereby said end is urged into marking engagement with said frame when said door is closed.

2. In a strike plate locator for marking on a door frame the continuation of the central axis of the latch bolt opening in the associateddoor in which the latch actuating unit hole in the face of the door communicates with said latch bolt opening; a pointed marker, means door to a distance slightly greater thanthe normal distance between said free edge and said frame, and latch means carried by said retracting means and manually,

releasable through said latch actuating unit hole for holding said marker in a retracted position whereby said end is urged into marking engagement with said frame when said door is closed.

References Cited inthe file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 797,824 'Seitz Aug. 22, 1905 888,377 Wood May 19, 1908 1,143,821 Frazer June 22, 1915 2,164,825 Lack July 4, 1939 2,638,682 Russell May 19, 1953 7 2,675,625 Rayl Apr. 20, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 713,829 Germany Nov. 17, 1941- 882,340 France Mar. 1, 1943' Canada a Jan. 3, 1950 

